It's hardly the biggest gaming surprise of the year, but Codemasters has officially announced GRID 2, the sequel to its successful urban driving title, Race Driver: GRID. Set for release in 2013, the game is once again set to mix street races with licensed circuits and scary mountain passes. Events will take place across the US, Europe and Asia with new cities Paris and Chicago joining locales such as Miami and Abu Dhabi.

The game is using the next-generation of Codemasters' in-house EGO engine, the tech behind all of its most recent racing titles. The developer is promising advanced AI and damage calculations, as well as a new TrueFeel handling system, which apparently combines authenticity with intuitive feedback. Along with split screen two-player, there will also be lots of online modes, all supporting Codies' new RaceNet community feature, which – like EA's Autolog – offers a social framework for online competition and challenges.

"GRID's back and we're going to make street, track and road racing exciting again," promises exec producer, Clive Moody. "The core design philosophy for GRID 2 is that we treat the race as a character, not a consequence of simply putting cars on tracks. Everything that goes into the game impacts on that second-to-second, in the moment, blockbuster drama – the feel and personality of the race."

The game, then, is clearly being pitched as a sort of flashy cinematic counterpoint to the off road thriller, Dirt, and the serious F1 simulations. The company will no doubt be revealing more at next week's Gamescom event in Cologne.